Image shading is a non-uniform light response across an image field. It can be attributed in an optical system to characteristics of a lens, sensitivity variations across a photo-sensor on which light is directed, improper alignment of a lens in relation to the image plane of the photo-sensor employed, internal cameral reflections, and possibly other factors that may be present in a particular system. In the case of a lens alone, a simple lens used to view a scene with a uniform light intensity across it will typically produce an image of that scene having a significantly non-uniform light intensity. The light intensity is normally highest in the middle of the image and falls off on its edges, as much as sixty percent or more. Such a lens obviously is not suitable for most optical applications without this effect being corrected. Correction can be provided by the use of a complex assembly of lenses that images scenes without imparting intensity variations across it.
Electronic cameras image scenes onto a two-dimensional sensor such as a charge-coupled-device (CCD), a complementary metal-on-silicon (CMOS) device or other type of light sensor. These devices include a large number of photo-detectors (typically two, three, four or more million) arranged across a small two dimensional surface that individually generate a signal proportional to the intensity of light or other optical radiation (including infrared and ultra-violet regions of the spectrum adjacent the visible light wavelengths) striking the element. These elements, forming pixels of an image, are typically scanned in a raster pattern to generate a serial stream of data of the intensity of radiation striking one sensor element after another as they are scanned. Color data are most commonly obtained by using photo-detectors that are sensitive to each of distinct color components (such as red, green and blue), alternately distributed across the sensor. Shading effects of lenses that image object scenes onto the photo-sensor, non-uniform sensitivity of the photo-sensor to various colors of light striking it, and potentially other factors, cause an uneven distribution of light across the photo-sensor, and thus video signals from the sensor include data of the undesired intensity variation superimposed thereon.
Rather than eliminating the lens shading effect by the use of a complex and expensive lens, along with an expensive and carefully selected image photo-sensor, it has been suggested that the signals from the photo-sensor may be processed in a manner to compensate for these effects. The amount of compensation applied to the signal from each photo-detector element is dependent upon the position of the element across the surface of the image photo-sensor.